The Chicago Bulls added another eyesore to their 2024-25 resume on Saturday night. Despite no Joel Embiid, Andre Drummond, or Cody Martin, the 11th-place Philadelphia 76ers handed the Bulls a double-digit loss at the United Center.
The Bulls failed to score over 100 points for only the sixth time this season and shot a mere 42.4 percent from the field. They have now lost seven of their last eight games. The tank is on!
While I wish I did not feel an overwhelming sense of relief watching the Bulls lose to a depleted 76ers team, I did. We’re all waiting to see this front office finally press the reset button, and the sad reality is that stacking L’s before the trade deadline makes that far more likely to occur. Not to mention, it only improves the organization’s lottery odds in a deep draft. We took a closer look at where those odds stand on Saturday morning, if you’re interested. A loss to the 76ers, in particular, helps the Bulls quite a lot in their quest to begin a new chapter. Philly came into the night 2.0 games back from Chicago for the final Play-In Tournament spot. Thanks to last night’s embarrassment, they are now only one game out from swapping spots. With how poorly the 76ers have played this season, it’s still hard to call them finishing ahead of the Bulls a gimme. But David Aldridge of The Athletic did report that the 76ers have no intention to join the Tank Race. With or without their superstar big man, they plan to keep pushing for the postseason.The 76ers’ brutal start has made the option of a mini-tank the rest of the way – which would preserve their 2025 first-round pick- a consideration. But they won’t. They’ll wait for Joel Embiid to return, and hope for a surge. In @theathletic.bsky.social: t.co/7L6JZg5OpB
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) January 26, 2025 Last night’s fourth quarter was about as bad as it gets. Chicago scored a season-low 14 points in the final frame and shot a ghastly 27.8 percent from the field. Even worse, they somehow turned the ball over a total of 10 times! Meanwhile, they allowed the 76ers to do whatever they wanted on the offensive end. They shot 6-8 from the paint and 4-9 from downtown. We also watched them pick the Bulls’ pocket seven times in the final 12 minutes, which marked their most in a quarter this season. Look, the Bulls have made their fair share of mistakes with the basketball this season. That’s going to happen when you lead the league in PACE. However, this is yet another example of how dysfunctional their offense has been over the last handful of weeks. They started the year as one of the league’s biggest surprises on that end of the floor, holding the ninth-highest effective field goal percentage in the league in 2024. Since the calendar flipped, however, they have held the 17th-ranked effective field goal percentage. It’s dropped as low as 24th over the last eight games. Yuck. © Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images The Patrick Williams problems continue. The team’s starting power forward shot only 1-9 from the field against the 76ers and finished with 2 points. This was his eighth single-digit scoring performance in the last ten games and his 20th of the season. When asked about his lack of production after the game, Billy Donovan sounded just as dumbfounded as we all are …“He’s (Patrick Williams) tried. It just hasn’t gone well” Billy Donovan on Patrick Williams’s aggressiveness pic.twitter.com/xliqwMlSHq
— CHGO Bulls (@CHGO_Bulls) January 26, 2025 As for Williams, you can tell the frustration is real. When asked about the confidence he has in his all-around game right now, he let out a simple reply, “I got game.” As much as I love the spirit, it just falls flat in a year like this. I really do think the Bulls are starting to do him a disservice by keeping him in the starting lineup. When someone is struggling this much, you have to at least try something new, especially after you paid the guy $90.0 million in the offseason! Speaking of which, I do want to make clear that I don’t think anyone should take out their frustrations regarding that contract on Williams. It’s not his fault the front office paid him that much. If anything, props to him and his camp for securing that bag. But it’s also completely true that the higher the contract, the higher the expectations. The Bulls put a big spotlight on the former No. 4 overall pick, and he now has to produce. This whole Patrick Williams thing is especially hard to deal with with someone like Matas Buzelis waiting in the wings. Yes, he’s a rookie, but there is no denying he provides a greater two-way spark when on the floor.Fly, Buzelis!? pic.twitter.com/g6dsMzb9H0
— Bulls on CHSN (@CHSN_Bulls) January 26, 2025 This was an insane make by Josh Giddey …You never see a catch & shoot like this ?@CHSN__ | @JoshGiddey pic.twitter.com/jfTYvkOU4G
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 26, 2025 Is this Will’s magnum opus? As much as I hate the idea of taking back Bradley Beal’s contract, this is the kind of draft compensation the Bulls should receive for doing so. Heck, I might even make the case they deserve at least one more first-round pick!Ok I think I figured it outBulls trade Zach and Vooch, take on Beal, Connaughton, Vanderbilt bad salaries. Get one bad first, two good onesLakers give up a first for Vooch, and get off VandoHeat remain competitive, don’t take back long term salary, get some OK picksBucks… pic.twitter.com/6dDYZzfHDM
— Will Gottlieb (@Will_Gottlieb) January 26, 2025 Luis is keeping you fully updated on all of the latest Chicago Bears coaching news. There have been a lot of big names thrown out for the coordinator positions. Tab takes a look at some potential buyout options for the Blackhawks in his morning notes.ELSEWHERE AT BN: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
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